The Wars to Come: Europa Universalis 4 development in 2019

By Joe Robinson18 Dec 20180

We don’t often cover individual development diaries here, especially for something like EU4 where things are somewhat more settled and community focused. But the most recent development diary has proved very illuminating – not only in what lessons the team have learned this year, but also what their plans are going forward.

To cut to the chase, they’ve laid out their rough road-map to the key beats they want to address in 2019, or at least the first half leading up to the major expansion release of year:

Endless, immortal mercenaries need to be reined in

the HRE system, which is largely unchanged from EU3 needs to evolve

Expand Estates mechanic

Make Catholicism and the Pope feel like a force to be reckoned with, rather than just another colour of Christianity and country

Flesh out mission trees for more countries.

Make manpower and attrition more meaningful

Improve custom nation options.

Up the standard of the map across Europe, including Balkans, Italy, France and Germany.

In general, 2019 is going to be less about new features or mechanics, and more about fixing the ‘tech debt’ of everything that’s come before – hence the focus on Europe and mechanics like the HRE, which the diary states hasn’t really changed much since the days of Europa Universalis III.

We wouldn’t be surprised if that next big ‘Europe’ expansion is the only release we see next year, although there will be patches both before and after. The Immersion Pack experiment, which as only really had three outings so far, remains a success in terms of sales, but also a challenging exercise in community interaction.

Lots of people seem upset or grumpy with the Immersion Pack experience, and yet Rule Britannia sold very well, and Golden Centuryis doing ok too merely a week form release.

That’s not to say Paradox aren’t aware of their failings – the diary goes on to talk about how they know they didn’t communicate well what the plan was for Golden Century, so one of their other stated goals for 2019 is to be more open and transparent about the development process.

If you’re a fan of EU4 and want to know what the next year as in store for the game, we suggest you read the diary in full if you can spare a few minutes – it’s a bit of a long one, but well worth it.